According to information supplied by Mr. Chas. F. Binns, the American Ceramic Society was founded in 1899, at Columbus, Ohio, when a small group of scientific men, interested in the problems of the silicate industries, gathered together and formed a permanent organization. Beginning with the report of that meeting a volume of Transactions has been published each year for nineteen years. In addition to the annual volume, a Manual of Ceramic Calculations, as an appendix to Volume 11, and the works of Hermann A. Seger, translated from the German, were published.

Clays and glazes were the earliest interests of the society but were soon followed by all branches of the silicate industries.

The growth in membership was steady but not large until 1917, when conservatism yielded before a vigorous campaign under the Membership Committee, resulting in an increase of over 200, a movement which has continued up to the present when there are 1,156 members.

In 1918 the annual volume of Transactions

was superseded by the Journal of the American Ceramic Society, with G. H. Brown as editor. There has been a gratifying improvement in this Journal during the year and three quarters of its existence, and it now ranks with the scientific journals of much larger societies.

Local sections have been organized in places where there are many ceramists, who meet frequently for the discussion of papers and for good-fellowship. More recently Industrial Divisions have been formed for the better grouping of interests at the annual meetings. It is probable that hereafter there will be one or two general meetings and the rest of the time will be given over to divisional meetings.

SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS DR. HENRY A. CHRISTIAN, Hersey professor of the theory and practise of physics in the Harvard Medical School and physician-inchief to the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, has been granted a leave of absence from his Boston work to serve for a year in Washing

ton as chairman of the Division of Medical Science of the National Research Council and will begin that work on October 1.

DR. AUGUSTUS TROWBRIDGE, professor of physics at Princeton University, has received for his work in organizing and directing the sound-ranging and the flash-ranging in the American Expeditionary Forces the distinguished service medal. He has also been decorated with the British D.S.O., and has been made Chevalier of the French Legion d'hon

neur.

PROFESSOR GILBERT N. LEWIS, dean of the college of chemistry, University of California, formerly lieutenant colonel in the Gas Service, A. E. F., has been decorated as Chevalier of the French Legion d'honneur.

DR. MORTON PRINCE, of Boston, has been decorated with the Cross of the French Legion of Honor for his services in promoting FrancoAmerican cooperation during the war.

LIEUTENANT COLONEL ELMER K. HILES, formerly of the Engineers, American Expeditionary Forces, has joined the Pittsburgh Testing Laboratory as manager of laboratories.

JACK J. HINMAN, JR., formerly captain in the Sanitary Corps of the American Expeditionary Forces, where he was engaged in water supply work, has returned to his pre-war duties as water bacteriologist and chemist to the Iowa State Board of Health and assistant professor of epidemiology in the State University of Iowa.

NORMAN A. SHEPARD, assistant professor in chemistry at Yale University, has resigned to enter the employ of the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company.

JULIUS B. KOHN, formerly employed by the U. S. Public Health Service as organic chemist doing research work under the direction of Dr. Julius Stieglitz on arsphenamine and neoarsphenamine at Kent Chemical Laboratory of the University of Chicago, is now connected with the Mallinckrodt Chemical Works as research chemist in their organic department, at St. Louis, Mo.

THE Massachusetts Department of Health celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its estab

lishment at the State House, on September 13. Among the chief speakers were Dr. Henry P. Walcott, Boston; Dr. William H. Welch, Baltimore; Assistant Surgeon Allan J. McLaughlin, U. S. P. H. S., and Sir Arthur Newsholme, of England. The health commissioner, Eugene R. Kelly, Boston, presided, and the visitors were welcomed on behalf of the state by the governor.

DR. FREDERICK EBERSON, of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, has accepted a position at the Washington University to study, experimentally, the "Latent syphilitic as a carrier." The research is to be done in the department of Professor M. F. Engman.

PROFESSOR J. E. PETAVEL, F.R.S., has been appointed director of the British National Physical Laboratory in succession to Sir Richard Glazebrook, C.B., F.R.S., who retired on reaching the age-limit on September 18. Professor Petavel is professor of engineering and director of the Whitworth Laboratory in. the University of Manchester.

A CORRESPONDENT writes: M. Emmanuel de Margerie, the eminent French geologist and geographer and translator of Suess' "Antlitz der Erde" into "La Face de la Terre," has lately been appointed director of the Geological Survey of Alsace and Lorraine, in connection with the reorganization of the University of Strasbourg under French control, where Gofreaux is professor of geology, Baulig and Denis of geography, and J. de Lapparent of mineralogy. To the best of our knowledge this is the first official position that de Margerie has ever held; all his work heretofore has been done as a private individual. There is no other geologist in the world who has attained so high a rank in his science by individual effort, without support from government bureaus or university appointments. De Margerie's new address is Service de la Carte Géologique d'Alsace et de la Lorraine, 1 rue Blessig, Strasbourg, France.

DR. BARTON WARREN EVERMANN, director of the museum of the California Academy of Sciences has gone into the Olympic Mountains west of Puget Sound for the purpose of

studying the Roosevelt elk in its native habitat. An expert Pathé moving picture photographer has been taken along to get a film showing this species of big game in action in its wild state and under natural surroundings. The film will be used by the academy in its educational work to supplement the habitat group of these animals which, through the generosity of Mr. Wm. C. Van Antwerp, the academy is now installing in its museum in Golden Gate Park.

THE Committee on cooperation of the Ecological Society of America has just completed a field study of the plants and animals at timber line on Mt. Morey in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. Coincidently with the field study some of the research problems in ecology were discussed and listed. The committee included representatives of the three main lines of activity of the society, plant ecology, animal ecology and forestry. The persons and institutions cooperating are Barrington Moore, president of the Ecological Society, Norman Taylor for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, George P. Burns for the Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station, Charles C. Adams and T. L. Hankinson for the New York State College of Forestry at Syra

cuse.

Ir is announced in Nature that the widow of Professor Milne has decided to return to her native country, Japan, and that in consequence the house at Shide, Newport, Isle of Wight, in which Professor Milne did such important work in seismology is to be sold shortly by public auction.

EDWARD PAYSON BATES, a well-known steam engineer of Syracuse, N. Y., died on August 4 at the age of seventy-five years.

DR. A. G. VERNON HARCOURT, F.R.S., lately Lee's reader in chemistry at Christ Church, Oxford, died on August 23, aged eighty-four

years.

PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MACALISTER, F.R.S., professor of anatomy in the University of Cambridge, died on September 2, aged seventyfive years.

DR. C. A. MERCIER, physician for mental diseases to Charing Cross Hospital, and a distinguished authority upon mental diseases and related subjects, died on September 2 at sixty-seven years of age.

THE death is announced of Dr. William Smith Greenfield, professor of pathology and clinical medicine in the University of Edinburgh from 1881 to 1912.

THE Bureau of Mines Experiment Station at Pittsburgh will be dedicated with suitable ceremonies on September 29 and 30 and October 1. The exercises carried out in connection with the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce include an excursion to the experimental mine near Bruceton, and first-aid and mine-rescue contests.

THE seventh meeting of the Spanish Association for the Advancement of the Sciences was held at Bilbao from September 7 to 12. There will be eight sections. The French Association for the Advancement of Science and corresponding bodies in Great Britain, Italy and other nations, have been invited to send delegates.

THE South African Association for the Advancement of Science held its annual meeting from July 7 to 12 inclusive, the first three days in Kingwilliamstown, the last three in East London. Wm. Flint, D.D., librarian of the Union of South Africa Parliament, was this year's president. Dr. I. B. Pole Evans, D.Sc., chief phytopathologist to the Union government was elected to succeed him. The outstanding feature of the meeting was a paper by Dr. A. Pyper, M.D., of Bethal, Transvaal, on "Diffraction phenomena in films of blood-cells and in surface-cultures of microorganisms," in which these phenomena were applied for exact measurement of diameter of blood-cells, etc. The total attendance of members of the "S2A, (as the association is called in colloquial speech in South Africa) was over 110.

AUTHORITY has been granted for the killing of 1,000 three-year-old seals on St. Paul Island this fall for food for the natives, and to increase the take of 4-year-olds on St. George Is

land from 300 to 500 in the current season. Killing of 6-year-olds and over will also proceed less vigorously on St. George Island, as proper proportions between the different age classes on that island are being more nearly attained. The above modifications in the quota have been made upon recent telegraphic recommendations of employees in charge at the Pribilof Islands.

PARTICULARS respecting the British government competition for the construction of aeroplanes and seaplanes on the lines of increased safety are given in Nature. The following prizes are offered: For aeroplanes of small type: First prize, £10,000; second prize, £4,000, and third prize £2,000. For large aeroplanes: First prize, £20,000; second prize, £8,000, and third prize, £4,000. For seaplanes: First prize, £10,000; second prize. £4,000, and third prize, £2,000. The latest date for entries is December 31 next. Sir H. H. Shephard has instituted a memorial to his son, the late Brigadier-General G. S. Shephard, in the shape of prizes for members of the Royal Air Force for essays relating to aviation. This year the prizes are to be awarded for essays on Sea and Fleet Reconnaissance" and "Aerial Navigation and Pilotage." The administration of the annual competitions is to be carried out by the Air Council.

HYDROBIOLOGISTS and others interested in the study of bottom fauna may now obtain, made to order in the United States, a quantitative bottom-sampler as used by Peterson in recent investigations at the Danish Biological Station. These machines are being built by a competent and responsible house in Illinois, whose name and address may be obtained by writing the State Natural History Survey, Urbana, Illinois. One machine is already in successful operation at the Illinois Biological Station, and a second is being made for another Illinois institution.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS

THE Lord Strathcona legacy to Yale University, which amounts to about $600,000 will

be used as follows: Two professorships in the graduate school will be established, and several fellowships founded, and a memorial building, costing about $250,000, will be built.

JULIUS ROSENWALD, of Chicago, has offered six scholarships of $1,200 each for negro graduates of American medical schools who desire to take post-graduate work in pathology, bacteriology, physiology, pharmacology or physiological chemistry. Appointments in 1920 will be made by a committee comprising: Dr. William H. Welch, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, chairman; Dr. David L. Edsall, dean of the Harvard Medical School, and Dr. Victor C. Vaughan, dean of the medical department, University of Michigan. Abraham Flexner, secretary of the General Education Board, will be secretary of the committee.

THE trustees of Vassar College have announced an increase in salaries ranging from 50 per cent. in the lowest grade to 121 per cent. for full professors. It applies to all teachers who have served the college a year

or more.

THE salaries of professors and other members of the teaching force of the University of Mississippi have been uniformly raised on a scale of about fifty per cent.

THE department of anatomy at the Johns Hopkins Medical School has been organized as follows: Lewis H. Weed, professor of anatomy; Florence R. Sabin, professor of histology; George W. Corner, associate professor of anatomy; Charles C. Macklin, associate in anatomy; Robert S. Cunningham, associate in anatomy; Chester H. Heuser, associate in anatomy; Jean Firket, instructor in anatomy; William A. McIntosh, assistant in anatomy.

WILLIAM MCDOUGALL, reader in mental philosophy in Oxford University, has been elected professor of psychology at Harvard University to fill the chair vacant by the death of Hugo Münsterberg.

DR. HERMAN MORRIS ADLER, formerly assistant professor of psychiatry in Harvard University, has been appointed professor of

criminology and head of the department of social hygiene, medical jurisprudence and criminology in the medical college of the University of Illinois.

LIEUTENANT SAMPSON K. BARRETT, U. S. N. R. F., who served as electrical officer on the dreadnaught Wyoming with the Grand Fleet in the North Sea, has been discharged from active service to accept an appointment as assistant professor of electrical engineering at New York University.

PROFESSOR F. B. PADDOCK, state entomologist of Texas, has accepted the position as state apiarist of Iowa and as associate professor in the department of zoology and entomology in the Iowa State College, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of F. Eric Millen, who took charge of the apicultural work in the Ontario Agricultural College on July 1.

DR. T. G. YUNCKER, of the Michigan Agricultural College, has been appointed assistant professor of biology at DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana. He will have charge of the botanical work.

DR. OTTO STUHLMAN, JR., associated with the department of physics at the State University of Iowa for the period of the war, has accepted an assistant professorship in physics at West Virginia University.

VICTOR E. NELSON, associate in chemistry, Johns Hopkins University, has accepted a position as assistant professor in charge of physiological chemistry at the Iowa State College.

DR. FRANCIS M. VAN TUYL, associate professor of geology and mineralogy in the Colorado School of Mines, has been appointed professor and head of the department of geology and mineralogy in that institution.

the "Journal Officiel" of the birth and deaths for 1913, 1914, 1915, 1916 and 1917 in the French departments not included in the zone of occupation and military occupations. These show a terrible increase of deaths over births. To give the whole picture of the serious effects of the war on the French civil population the figures are needed for the occupied territory. I can provide a few as a result of opportunities offered while at work in occupied France for the Commission for Relief in Belgium and North France.

In Lille, by far the largest city in occupied France, there was in the two years 1915 and 1916 a 47 per cent. decrease in births and a 45 per cent. increase in deaths as compared with pre-war ratios. This determination takes into account the difference in population of the city between the pre-war and the war years produced by an escape of one fourth of the city's inhabitants before the German forces occupied it, but it does not take into account the fact that this diminution of population was not effected by a simple random selection among the whole population (i. e., by a proportionate lessening of all age groups and both sexes) but resulted largely from the removal for military service of almost all physically fit men of the age-group twenty to fortyfive years. Part of the diminution also was caused by the emigration at the time of the invasion of entire families of the well-to-do class able to afford the expense of removal. This last group may perhaps be taken to be, on the whole, a particularly healthy group. In making, therefore, direct comparison of the mortality ratios for the two periods (war and pre-war) these special facts should be taken into account.

The increased percentage of deaths occurred especially in the age-groups 1 to 19 years, where it was 81 per cent. more in 1915-1916 than in 1913-1914, and 60 years and over, where it was 85 per cent. The principal immediate causes of the increased deaths were tuberculosis, brain hemorrhages and heart affections. The ultimate causes were of course certain war-produced conditions, especially the insufficient amount and variety of food and

the necessity for a renewed return to hard work in the fields by old men and women to make up for the absence of the able-bodied

men.

Data with regard to Charleville, another French city in the occupied territory, but one in an agricultural rather than an industrial region-Lille is the center of North France's principal industrial region-show almost identical conditions. And I believe from my personal observations during 1915 and 1916 over the whole of the occupied territory that the death-ratios in these two cities are a fair sample of those for the whole of the occupied region. The occupation extended, of course, for a much longer period than merely 1915 and 1916. It extended from late in 1914 until late in 1918. Undoubtedly these ratios of lessened birth-rate and increased death-rate in the occupied territory of France for 1915-1916 are not greater, but probably because of the increase of exhaustion and difficulties with food, fuel, clothing, medical service and supplies, less than those for 1917 and 1918. VERNON KEllogg NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL, WASHINGTON

INSTINCTIVE BEHAVIOR IN THE WHITE RAT

IN confirmation of Mr. Griffith's observation of a possible case of instinctive behavior in the white rat reported in SCIENCE for August 15, 1919, I wish to add a somewhat similar observation which I made a few months ago.

Upon placing a few handfuls of fresh dandelions into a cage of some twenty white rats of various ages which had been reared in the laboratory for several generations, much to my surprise I found the rats at once ran away from the greens and gathered in one corner of the cage and behaved in a thoroughly frightened manner. At first I could not account for this strange behavior, for hitherto the rats had fed with avidity on fresh dandelions and seized the plants as soon as they were placed in reach. On further thought, I recalled that I had gathered the dandelions on this occasion in an old basket which had recently been used for bringing a